Programme list

In June 2016 the United Kingdom (UK) in a referendum voted to leave the European Union (EU). However, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has indicated that Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, the formal procedure for withdrawing, will be invoked by the end of March 2017. • What are the implications for law firms and bar associations in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland presented by the UK withdrawing from the EU? • What are the opportunities and challenges for these law firms and bar associations posed by such withdrawal? • What are the challenges and opportunities posed by such withdrawal for law firms and bar associations located outside the UK?

Whatever the future trends in international trade deals and whatever the approach of your local bar (whether conservative or liberal), there will continue to be cooperation across borders between lawyers and law firms. In countries that export legal services, it represents an opportunity for firms to provide local services through a known entity. For countries that import legal services, it is an opportunity for their lawyers to gain a bigger slice of the international pie. Clearly, the meeting point between the interests of the two types of countries is in the regulation of such activities. This session will be an opportunity to explore some of the issues, particularly as covered by the forthcoming IBA Handbook on association between local and foreign lawyers, and to consider some of the Handbook’s proposed best practices.

Leadership in any Bar Association is essentially about service towards the realisation of the ideas and objects of the particular Bar Association. Bar Associations need to play a role in ensuring that leadership is fostered at all levels of the Association to ensure that the Association remains relevant and effective and meets the needs of its members and stakeholders. This session aims to explore the best means of achieving this result.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made extraordinary progress in the past few years, thanks to a versatile new technique called ‘deep learning’. Suddenly AI systems are achieving impressive results in a range of tasks. Given enough large data (or deep learning) computers, modelled on the brain’s architecture, can be trained to do all kinds of things. We read about robots that have ‘personalities’. For lawyers employing computer programmes that perform certain tasks once handled by lawyers, the ethical rules and obligations continue. However, is it simply old wine in new bottles, or are the current rules insufficient to maintain professional standards in the use of AI? The move towards increased automation of legal services continues to gather momentum as pressures to lower costs, increase efficiency, satisfy existing clients and attract new business continue. This programme addresses the following questions: • What is the detail of this automation of legal services? • How has this changed how lawyers offer their services? • What are the costs and earnings implications for clients and law firms? • To what extent will the numbers of employed lawyers be affected? • What are the expected changes to IT and consequently legal practice in the coming years? • What are the challenges to ethical rules and obligations? • What are the implications of all of this for bar associations?